Sleepless in Padua
by cresmoon
Summary: Kat is keeping Patrick up. What is he going to do about it? Just a little piece of Kat and Patrick's future. PG-13 for implied hanky panky talk.


Sleepless in Padua

**Writer's note:** I must confess that while I LOVE the tv show, I've never seen the movie so any fic I write will be based solely on what I know about the characters from the show. Anyway, my first _10 Things_ fic! I never thought I'd write fic based on an ABC Family show but Kat/Patrick are one of my favorite love/hate pairings, right along with Castle/Beckett (Castle) so I had to give them a spin. Hope you like. Feedback is love. No, own nothing, not making any money off them, blah blah blah.

**Summary:** Kat is keeping Patrick up. What is he going to do about it? Just a little piece of Kat and Patrick's future. AU, I suppose. fluff/humor

Patrick Verona rolled over in his bed and groaned. He glanced at the alarm clock on his nightstand and groaned even louder.

Two fifty-three. Almost three freaking a.m. and she was STILL at the damn computer.

Grumbling, Patrick hauled himself out of the bed he shared with his new wife and sluggishly walked down the stairs and into the study where Kat Stratford-Verona was feverishly hunched over the keyboard, hitting each key as fiercely as though Kim Jong Eel's face were imprinted on every single key on the keyboard.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Sarcastic as his tone was, Patrick's voice was tinged with the same wry amusement it always had when he spoke to Kat. Right from the time they'd met in high school.

"It is time for them to pay!" Wild-eyed with hair sticking up in every odd (and hilarious) angle possible, Kat brandished the blood red felt tip marker into the air like some samurai sword. "And they are going to pay, no matter how long it takes or how many editorials I have to write or-"

"How many hours of sleep you make me lose?" With a hint of a smile, Patrick stood up against the doorway and crossed his arms.

Kat's head snapped up with the crazy determined look in her eyes. Uh-oh. "Sleep? Do you know how many hours of sleep the people at Children's Mercy lose, not knowing where or how they'll get the money to pay their child's next hospital bill? Or how much sleep is lost because insurance companies refuse to pay for their sleep apnea treatments? Or how much sleep-"

"I've lost because I'm standing here arguing with my wife about sleeping instead of oh, actually, sleeping?" Patrick smirked.

Kat glared at him. "Are you going to let me finish this so I can get back to bed or are you going to keep being annoying?"

"Well, let's see," Patrick said in a mock-thoughtful voice, "Go to my cold bed alone or annoy Kat...cold bed or annoy Kat...bed, Kat...oh gosh, however will I choose?" He leapt out of the way, giggling, as Kat tried to swat him.

"This is very important to me, Mr. Verona," said Kat loftily.

Very likely against his best judgment, Patrick pulled Kat into an embrace. "But you're not going to get it done unless you get some sleep, Mrs. Verona."

"It's Stratford. I am not changing my last name, I told you, this is not the 1950s and I will not be your good little wife-"

"Clearly not, since you'd have to be _good_ first to be a good little wife-" Patrick snickered.

"Do not make me hit you-" Without meaning to, Kat giggled and they both started laughing, Patrick almost uncontrollably.

"Remind me again why I married you?" pouted Kat, trying to wrestle out of his arms as the giggles finally subsided.

"Because no one else would have you?"

Shooting a mock glare at her husband, Kat fired back. "Oh, really? And why did you marry me?"

Patrick grinned. "Well, let's see," he said slowly, pretending to think again. "Either I lost a bet with one of those guys from auto shop, or," he wagged his eyebrows mischievously "Because you have the cutest ass I've ever seen."

"One more crack like that and you're sleeping on the couch for a month. Ever hear of Bill and Hillary Clinton?"

"One more late-night typing session and you're not getting laid for a month," retorted Patrick. "Ever hear of _Lysistrata_?"

"A _Lysistrata_ reference! You've been holding out on me, Mr. Verona. What other secrets have you been keeping?"

Patrick leaned in to her conspiratorially. "Come back upstairs and you'll find out." He winked at her and started walking back upstairs.

Kat's eyes widened. How dare he suggest that just because she was a woman, she would walk away just because he…?! "I have to finish this tonight, Patrick!" she yelled infuriatingly as he continued to walk upstairs.

He turned around and smirked. "You've got 30 seconds, or I go back to sleep." Chuckling while she glared at him, he disappeared up the stairs.

Kat turned around stared at the computer screen longingly. Sighing, grumbling to herself, she saved the file and turned off the computer.

_Damn that man. I'm going to get the best of him one day. _

But as Kat Stratford headed upstairs, a rare, secret smile flashed across her lips.

_Just not today._

**Writer's note:** For those of you who don't get the Lysistrata reference, it's a play about women withholding sex from their significant others till they agree to end the war they're fighting in.


End file.
